Lee Miller is the owner and head bootmaker at Texas Traditions, the humble shop at 2222 College Avenue in Austin Texas that combines some of the world’s great bespoke cowboy boots with a truly unassailable lineage.
Texas Traditions opened in 1977 with “The Picasso of cowboy boots” Charlie Dunn at the helm. After hearing the Jerry Jeff Walker song “Charlie Dunn” on the radio while growing up in Vermont, Lee very adamantly decided he would become a bootmaker. So he went to bootmaking school, worked with hiking boot godhead Randy Merrell in Vernal, Utah, and eventually found his way to an apprentice position under Charlie, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
Making boots isn’t easy. Neither, it turns out, was working for Charlie Dunn—and Lee definitely believed it was over when Charlie fired him on a whim. At least he did the first time.
It certainly wasn’t over. I had the pleasure of spending the day in the Texas Traditions shop last summer. To see the the throne of an elevated chair where Lee measures every customer’s feet, the caches of tiny nails and lemonwood pegs, the boot tops being stitched, the lasts hanging from the ceiling—many with names you’d recognize from country music or your favorite movie, many more just for someone who loves cowboy boots and craft—all in a space once also inhabited by Charlie Dunn. Well, it’s just incredibly special.
So was this chat with Lee. It’s damn near two hours long, and it never lets up. Lee and I get deep into the shop’s history, Charlie’s uniquely mystical approach to cowboy bootmaking, the Mexican bootmakers who shared their knowledge with Lee, what makes a truly great toe and heel shape, how to fit a custom boot, contending with people that you can’t do something, and the impossible, beautiful toil of making boots by hand.
Here’s Lee Miller of Texas Traditions, on the Shoecast.
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